Essential tips for hiring ‘right person’ for the job

They say your people are your greatest asset in any organisation – that’s true. This largely informs why most employers seek only the right candidate for the job.

This desire to have “right man for the right job” is often fuelled by the fact that the people you ultimately choose to hire are directly linked to the overall success of your business.

And so business have resorted to professional recruiting agencies to help them get the best man — or woman for the job. Other organisations have resorted to rigorous internal hiring mechanism to get only the best — and it takes time and sometimes resources. This is qualified by the fact business want candidates with the right attitude, skill set and knowledge for the job.

Of course there’s no true formula for hiring the right person for a job every time. There are instances you’ll make mistakes. It’s a delicate mixture of luck, skill and little sweat.

Just how then does one package and present themselves so they can be spotted by the hawkeyed employer or agency? How do you sell yourself to that potential employer?

Most employers love to attract a professional with the right attitude, passion, positive frame of mind, well balanced technical, human and conceptual skills, and an aggressive executor with aspiration to achieve results. This is most crucial to the employer —and it is largely justified because any business is as good as its people.

The conundrum is how to find all these qualities in one person. To the employers, it’s almost like getting a needle out of a haystack – but this does not mean it’s impossible. The most refreshing truth is that there are people out there with the right skill, knowledge and attitude for the job.

How then do you find them, especially in a fast growing businesses environment with technology driven dynamism? The other challenge is how to find a candidate who fits into an organisation’s culture – one who can align with the existing lot. It’s a BIG challenge.

Shining stars

So what’s the solution. There are two approaches often adopted by businesses; one is finding SHINING STARS from within the organisation - and enhancing their capacity for the future. This would include engaging them in cross functional roles, monitoring of tasks with deadlines, inter personal relationships.

Others are changing environment, having focused training, recognition and motivation as some of the methods adopted to enhance people’s skills to fit into right slots.

The second approach involves finding candidates with special skills through their experience list— and bring them on board to kick start certain activities. However, it must not escape our minds that organisation and the environment is different, which warrants time to understand the people, policies and practices.

The new comer and the business need to work on alignment which takes immense efforts and time. The induction process helps to some extent, but the structures, protocols and the empowerment must be clear to hasten up the process of alignment.

Sadly, many businessmen aspire to institutionalise their businesses, but invariably fail even in the short span, despite finding good professionals due to their lack of commitment and sustainability of their own idea.

In the absence of clear road map and commitment one should never attempt to take professionals on board and let them leave in a short period of time. It not only dilutes the credibility of an organisation but also a cost to the company. Hence, careful choice and management of professionals is imperative and the policies and systems must be conducive to employee retention and growth from within.

Organisations which fail to build capacity will in the long run suffer from want of people with skills. Skill development is a process aligning the individual’s aspiration to the corporate goals.

The well-defined “path to growth” process and the planned efforts from the organisation to equip the people to fast track their growth will certainly help finding right people with right skills to fit into the right slots.

The leadership skill and ability to manage situations and people of varied nature are much wanted skills besides technical and commercial ones. The HR department is always under pressure to balance the expectation of the people and the business – and while at it, protect the brand equity and meet company obligations.

Many functional heads develop complacency yet manage their functions very well. But the challenge is building a business for future needs a dynamic leader who is aggressive with the honey bee attitude to keep acquiring knowledge and skills.

The Fortune 500 companies have great leaders who have risen to the top with a lot of knowledge, experience and required skills to manage the empires. Organisations which focus on building skills will build a sustainable business and those businesses will grow profitably and stand out of the crowd.